Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Sphinx is drowsy, Her wings are furled: Her ear is heavy, She broods on the world. “Who’ll tell me […]

The rain has spoiled the farmer’s day; Shall sorrow put my books away? Thereby are two days lost: Nature shall […]

The rhyme of the poet Modulates the king’s affairs, Balance-loving nature Made all things in pairs. To every foot its […]

The south-wind brings Life, sunshine, and desire, And on every mount and meadow Breathes aromatic fire, But over the dead […]

Give all to love; Obey thy heart; Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good fame, Plans, credit, and the muse; Nothing refuse. […]

That you are fair or wise is vain, Or strong, or rich, or generous; You must have also the untaught […]

Hast thou named all the birds without a gun; Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk; At rich […]

Good-by, proud world, I’m going home, Thou’rt not my friend, and I’m not thine; Long through thy weary crowds I […]

Who gave thee, O Beauty! The keys of this breast, Too credulous lover Of blest and unblest? Say when in […]

Thy trivial harp will never please Or fill my craving ear; Its chords should ring as blows the breeze, Free, […]

IT fell in the ancient periods Which the brooding soul surveys, Or ever the wild Time coin’d itself Into calendar […]

Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown, Of thee, from the hill-top looking down; And the heifer, that lows […]

Thy summer voice, Musketaquit, Repeats the music of the rain; But sweeter rivers pulsing flit Through thee, as thou through […]

I Alphonso live and learn, Seeing nature go astern. Things deteriorate in kind, Lemons run to leaves and rind, Meagre […]

Think me not unkind and rude, That I walk alone in grove and glen; I go to the god of […]

Give me truths, For I am weary of the surfaces, And die of inanition. If I knew Only the herbs […]

Higher far, Upward, into the pure realm, Over sun or star, Over the flickering Dæmon film, Thou must mount for […]

The sinful painter drapes his goddess warm, Because she still is naked, being drest; The godlike sculptor will not so […]

Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days, Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, And marching single in an endless file, Bring […]

Thousand minstrels woke within me, “Our music’s in the hills; “- Gayest pictures rose to win me, Leopard-colored rills. Up!-If […]

What care I, so they stand the same,- Things of the heavenly mind,- How long the power to give them […]

I serve you not, if you I follow, Shadow-like, o’er hill and hollow, And bend my fancy to your leading, […]

Seek not the Spirit, if it hide, Inexorable to thy zeal: Baby, do not whine and chide; Art thou not […]

Set not thy foot on graves; Hear what wine and roses say; The mountain chase, the summer waves, The crowded […]

What boots it, thy virtue, What profit thy parts, While one thing thou lackest, The art of all arts! The […]

When I was born, From all the seas of strength Fate filled a chalice, Saying, This be thy portion, child; […]

I Thy trivial harp will never please Or fill my craving ear; Its chords should ring as blows the breeze, […]

Because I was content with these poor fields, Low open meads, slender and sluggish streams, And found a home in […]

The green grass is growing, The morning wind is in it, ‘Tis a tune worth the knowing, Though it change […]

Venus, when her son was lost, Cried him up and down the coast, In hamlets, palaces, and parks, And told […]